North Shore Pizza during the Pandemic

The Coronavirus. What a cluster. On March 12, we were told that our high school was likely shutting down for at least the remainder of the month (Adam was a senior at DHS and Jordan was a sophomore). The next day Orly flew home from Tulane, effectively ending her sophomore year. And that same night, Hadar and Frank (mom and dad) had a casual dinner with another couple at a restaurant for the last time before the world experienced the greatest change in our lifetimes.

In these last 12 months, every family has experienced different degrees of hardship, disappointment, stress and, in some cases, the loss of a loved one. Our family was among the lucky ones--no jobs were lost, everyone has successfully returned to school (Jordan via remote for high school, in person for Orly and Adam, who joined his sister at Tulane), and everyone remained healthy within our extended family and friend group.

During the time of Corona, we are sure that many families like ours have consciously or unconsciously fallen into certain patterns. For instance, every day by 9:30 am, one of us will ask “what are we having for dinner?” The planning and discussing of dinner was and continues to be a major topic in our house. Maybe 20% of our conversations are about dinner. We also love pizza. And we mean love. In pursuit of our passion, our father/daughter duo of Frank and Jordan decided to take on the world one pizza at a time.

There is no doubt that pizza is at its best right out of the oven. Unfortunately that was not possible during Corona. Nevertheless, we tried to maintain some “quality control” by picking up the pizza and not relying on delivery which may involve multiple stops. We also kept the travel distance to 20 minutes or under (save for one restaurant). When the pizza arrived at home, no reheating in the oven was allowed. Notwithstanding our Chicago roots (Frank grew up on Pizzeria Due), this project only focused on thin crust pizza. Two pizzas were ordered each time. One pizza was half cheese and half double onion. The default for the other pizza was half italian beef and half ground beef. If one or neither of the meats were available, the next choice would be meatball (dietary considerations restricted the use of sausage and pepperoni).

We had tried many of the pizzas on this list prior to our pizza quest. However, the scoring was solely based on a single order during the competition process. Any tasting prior to the competition was not included in order to remain unbiased and any subsequent order after the score was recorded was not included in order to maintain fairness. While this may have created a level of fairness, it left out an essential part of great pizza--consistency. Consistency, meaning that the pizza from a particular restaurant tastes the same each time you order it is essential, and perhaps with our future thick crust pizza ranking we will incorporate multiple pizza orders from a single restaurant into the overall score. Having said that, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the consistency standards set by both Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s.

The Scoring System:

Overall Score Based on Components: Pretty simple. Add up all of the ratings for each category and divide by the numbers of categories.

Initial Taste: This is your Dave Portnoy, “one bite everyone knows the rules”, reaction on the night of the order.

Next Day Taste: Our family loves leftover pizza. These slices were eaten in the morning after the order and were always eaten cold.

Quantity of Toppings: Self-explanatory. If we included multiple orders into our scoring system, this is the category that would have had the most volatility for most restaurants.

Sauce: Some sauces were sweet. Some had a tang. Too often we found that certain places simply did not add enough sauce. This may be a family bias.

Crust: How thick is it? Is it too buttery? Crunchy?

Cheese: This component combines taste and quantity.

Quality of Toppings: How good are the toppings?

The Top 5 Overall:

Frank’s Top 5:

Giordano's

9.1786

Rosebud

8.7857

Lou Malnati's

8.7143

Slyce Coal Fired

8.6786

Pizano's

8.6071

Giordano’s--I love this pizza. Some may find the crust too thick, but I love it. The cheese used is my overall favorite and no pizza can compete with Giordano’s the next morning. There may be some childhood bias here, but I did my best to keep emotion out of it.

Rosebud---The crust was similar in thickness to Giordano’s but much more crunchy. Strong across the board with terrific meatballs, the pizza did suffer from a lack of sauce.

Lou Malnati’s---I dinged Lou’s in two categories, quantity of toppings and the crust. However, for many, the crust is the best element of the pizza. It is just a little too buttery and a little too thin for my taste. The tomato sauce is spectacular

Slyce Coal Fired--I love coal-fired pizza, and this one does not disappoint. The sauce was a little light and the crust, which is amazing on the night of ordering, did not hold up great the next morning. This likely could have been remedied by heating it up (which was against the rules).

Pizano’s--Like Malnati’s, Pizano’s has a buttery crust but one that is much thicker. Great crust crunch. The pizza scored incredibly high across the board except for one category. Sauce. This was essentially a sauceless pizza. Even a mediocre score in this area would have vaulted Pizano to number 2 on my list.

Jordan’s Top 5:

Lou Malnati's

9.1786

New York Slices

9

Giordano's

8.9643

Slyce Coal Fired

8.6429

Rosebud

8.6429

Malnati’s -- My favorite pizza of all time and has been since I can remember. Their crust is perfect and their tomato sauce I could eat plain. My favorite part of the classic thin crust cheese is the day after --having it cold is just amazing.

New York Slices -- One of my all time favorites when I am not in the mood for Lou’s. The sauce is so delicious and the cheese and crust taste like absolute perfection. The italian beef is amazing here and not comparable to any other place.

Giordano’s -- Giordano’s is my dad’s favorite and has become one of mine over the years. There is a lot of cheese which can be unappealing to some but is very good to me. It also remains amazing the next day, making it a meal that could last for multiple days and still taste amazing.

Slyce Coal Fired -- Slyce is classic coal fire pizza. The doughiness of the crust is the best part. This pizza is floppy but the taste of the coal fire cooking makes it stand out compared to other places. Similar to Blaze but seems fancier and less crunchy.

Rosebud— Rosebud is a classic local place. It’s pretty much ideal pizza and always a safe call. Good crunch in the crust, good amounts of cheese and sauce, but nothing spectacular. My favorite part of Rosebud is the meatball topping that is unmatched at any other place.

Initial Taste:

Jordan:

Lou Malnati's

9.5

New York Slices

9.5

Giordano's

9

Slyce Coal Fired

9

Rosebud

8.5

Frank:

Giordano's

9.25

Slyce Coal Fired

9.25

Lou Malnati's

9

Washington Gardens

8.75

Rosebud

8.75

Next Day Taste:

Jordan:

Lou Malnati's

9.5

Pizano's

9

New York Slices

9

Giordano's

9

Slyce Coal Fired

9

Frank:

Giordano's

9.5

Rosebud

9

Pizano's

9

Slyce Coal Fired

8.5

Rosati's

8.5

Quantity of Toppings:

Jordan:

Vicino's

9.5

Judy's

9.5

Washington Gardens

9.5

Giordano's

9.5

Buffo's

9.25

Frank:

Vicino's

9.5

Pizano's

9.5

Judy's

9.5

Marcellos

9.5

Giordano's

9.25

Barnaby's

9.25

Washington Gardens

9.25

Buffo's

9.25

D'Agastinio's

9.25

Sauce:

Jordan:

New York Slices

9.5

Lou Malnati's

9.5

Veloce

9

Rosati's

8.5

Vicino's

8.5

Giordano's

8.5

Judy's

8.5

Washington Gardens

8.5

Frank:

Lou Malnati's

9.25

Rosati's

9

Giordano's

8.75

New York Slices

8.75

Veloce

8.5

Judy's

8.5

Washington Gardens

8.5

Crust:

Jordan:

Frank:

Lou Malnati's

9.75

Slyce Coal Fired

9.25

Pizano's

9.5

Washington Gardens

9

Slyce Coal Fired

9.5

Rosebud

9

New York Slices

9.5

Giordano's

9

Rosebud

9

Barnaby's

9

Washington Gardens

9

Giordano's

9

Barnaby's

9

Gigio's

9

Frank:

Slyce Coal Fired

9.25

Washington Gardens

9

Rosebud

9

Giordano's

9

Barnaby's

9

Cheese:

Jordan:

Lou Malnati's

9

Veloce

9

New York Slices

9

Rosati's

9

Rosebud

8.5

Buffo's

8.5

D'Agastinio's

8.5

Gigio's

8.5

Slyce Coal Fired

8.5

Giordano's

8.5

Vicino's

8.5

Judy's

8.5

Barnaby's

8.5

Frank:

Giordano's

9.25

Rosati's

9

Pizano's

9

Barnaby's

9

Lou Malnati's

9

Quality of Toppings:

Jordan:

Rosebud

9.5

New York Slices

9.5

Giordano's

9.25

Buffo's

9

Pizano's

9

Barnaby's

9

Slyce Coal Fired

9

Lou Malnati's

9

Marcellos

9

Frank:

Pizano's

9.5

D'Agastinio's

9.5

Rosebud

9.25

Giordano's

9.25

Slyce Coal Fired

9

Buffo's

9

Lou Malnati's

9

Barnaby's

9

Marcellos

9

Top 20 Overall:

Jordan:

Lou Malnati's

9.1786

New York Slices

9

Giordano's

8.9643

Slyce Coal Fired

8.6429

Rosebud

8.6429

Veloce

8.5

Gigio's

8.5

Washington Gardens

8.4286

Buffo's

8.3929

Rosati's

8.3214

Vicino's

8.2857

Judy's

8.2143

Barnaby's

8.1429

Pizano's

8.0714

Marcellos

7.7857

D'Agastinio's

7.5714

Il Forno (Highwood)

6.5714

Frank:

Giordano's

9.1786

Rosebud

8.7857

Lou Malnati's

8.7143

Slyce Coal Fired

8.6786

Pizano's

8.6071

Washington Gardens

8.5714

Gigio's

8.5

Buffo's

8.5

Rosati's

8.5

Veloce

8.4643

Barnaby's

8.4286

Judy's

8.2857

Vicino's

8.1429

New York Slices

8.1071

D'Agastinio's

8.1071

Marcellos

8.0714

Il Forno (Highwood)

6.8571